Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot (3 February 1826-24 March 1877) was a British liberal essayist and journalist who was best known for his books The English Constitution (1865-7), Physics and Politics (1867-72), and Lombard Street (1873).

Biography
Walter Bagehot was born in Langport, Somerset, England on 3 February 1826, and he joined his father's shipping and banking business in 1852. He founded the National Review in 1855 and became editor-in-chief of The Economist in 1861, expanding the latter's political coverage. In 1867, he published a landmark work on the English government, its Parliament, and the monarchy, The English Constitution. He went on to write several other works on political science and government, and, while he never received a classical or elite education, he dined with members of the political establishment such as William Ewart Gladstone and spent weekends at Highclere. He failed in his two attempts to be elected to Parliament as a Liberal Party MP, as he had no experience with political decision-making either as a middle-class journalist or banker. He died of pneumonia in 1877, but his works have gone on to have enormous influence in students of British government and politics.